Category: Year 8

The Department for Education published the official examination results for 2017 on 25th January. This again confirmed how well we did last summer and how much progress we have made over the last couple of years. As far as GCSE results are concerned, the Warrington league table shows that we were the highest performing school in terms of the numbers of students gaining a ‘strong pass’ (i.e. Grade 5 or above) in both English and Maths: our score of 67% puts us in the top few percent of state schools in the country. On the only measure that can be reliably compared to previous years, the numbers gaining 9-4 grades (i.e. directly equivalent to the old A*-C) in English and Maths, our score of 83% was the best the school has ever achieved since GCSEs were introduced.

On the new Progress 8 measure, our score of 0.1 shows our students made at least the kind progress that would be expected for an able cohort such as we have at Lymm, and is a lot higher than it would have been at any time in the past few years. Please note that we urge caution when interpreting the Progress 8 scores; we refuse to follow many other schools in entering students for easy courses that would significantly inflate our P8 score but leave students with qualifications that are not valued by employers or further/higher education providers. Feedback so far suggests parents and carers support this principled approach and we hope this remains the case.

As far as A’ levels are concerned, we were the top performing school in Warrington for numbers gaining AAB grades in facilitating A’ level subjects: a remarkable 24.4% of our students achieved this benchmark. The second highest in Warrington was 10.7% and we cannot find a non-selective school anywhere near here that has a score as high as ours; indeed, many selective 6th forms – e.g. Urmston, Stretford and Loreto Grammar schools – actually have lower scores. Sir John Deane’s College scored 17.1%.

Our progress score was also significantly above average, placing us in the top 15% of the country for the second year running and we are the only post-16 provider in Warrington with a significantly above average score.

The government publishes a lot more data on school performance than it used to and it can all be rather complicated these days!

However, whichever way we look at all this data, it is a very positive story and is a real credit to the students and teachers involved: well done! again to all of them.

Ofsted are coming in to visit school tomorrow. In light of this, we regret to inform you that our planned Parents Forum event will be postponed until further notice. We will set a new date as soon as possible and hope that you are able to attend.

Mr Williams will be hosting the latest Parent Forum event between 6-7.30pm on Tuesday 6th February and it would be great to see as many parents and carers there as possible. These events are really important to us as a means of gaining feedback from parents and carers about things that are going well and areas in which we need to improve. Those of you who have attended in the past will know that the evenings are fairly informal and there is usually a very nice atmosphere. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.

The evening will be split into three parts. Mr Williams will open with a short presentation, giving an overview of where we feel the school is now in terms of our overall development. Mrs Ryles-Dean will then say a few words about all of the work we are doing to do ensure that behaviour and ethos in the school keeps improving, including details about the rewards systems, other means of recognising students’ achievements and ways in which we encourage students to become more socially responsible citizens. Then, as always, we will be inviting parents and carers to split into small groups and provide us with feedback (positive and negative!) on any issues at all that you feel are important.

Please bear in mind that these evenings are about discussing policies, systems and practices in the school more generally, rather than a chance to talk about any specific concerns regarding your own individual son or daughter (although, of course, if you do have any such concerns, then you must not hesitate to contact us separately).

If you are likely to be attending, please let Mrs Headon know via email (hheadon@lymmhigh.org.uk) in advance so that we can ensure that there are sufficient refreshments for everybody.